QQ 


JUMANO         INDI 


F.  W.       HOD 


, 


•- 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFOR* 


THE  JUMANO  INDIANS 


BY 


FREDERICK   WEBB   HODGE 


THE  JUMANO  INDIANS 


BY 


FREDERICK   WEBB   HODGE 


REPRINTED  FROM  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  ANTIQUARIAN  SOCIDTT 
AT  THE  SEMI-ANNUAL  MEETING,  APRIL,  1910. 


WORCESTER,    MASS.,    U.    8.    A. 

THE  DAVIS  PRESS 

44     FRONT     STREET 

1910 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY.  OF  CALIFORNIA" 
DAVIS 


THE   JUMANO  INDIANS. 


In  studying  the  history  and  the  effect  of  the  contact  of 
the  Southwestern  Indians  with  civilization,  the  writer  was 
baffled  by  what  appeared  to  be  the  sudden  and  almost 
complete  disappearance  of  a  populous  tribe  which  played  a 
rather  prominent  part  in  the  history  of  the  early  exploration 
and  colonization  of  the  Southwest,  which  occupied  villages 
of  a  more  or  less  permanent  character,  and  among  whom 
missionaries  labored  in  fruitless  endeavor  to  show  them 
the  way  to  Christianity.  It  is  not  usually  difficult  to  account 
for  the  decimation  or  even  for  the  extinction  of  a  tribe 
ravaged  by  war  or  by  epidemics,  of  which  there  are  numerous 
instances;  but  of  the  Jumano  Indians,  of  whom  this  paper 
treats,  there  is  no  evidence  that  they  were  especially  warlike 
in  character,  that  they  had  a  greater  number  of  enemies 
than  the  average  tribe,  or  that  they  had  suffered  unusually 
the  inroads  of  disease. 

The  Jumano  were  first  visited  by  Alvar  Nunez  Cabeza 
de  Vaca  and  his  three  companions  of  the  ill-fated  Narvaez 
expedition,  while  making  their  marvelous  journey  across 
Texas  and  Chihuahua  in  1535.  The  name  of  the  tribe  is 
not  given  by  them:  they  are  called  merely  the  "Cow 
Nation";  but  the  relation  of  an  expedition  nearly  half  a 
century  later  makes  it  evident  that  no  other  people  could 
have  been  meant.  The  narration  of  Cabeza  de  Vaca  is  so 
indefinite  that  from  it  alone  it  would  be  difficult  even  to 
locate  the  place  where  the  Jumano  were  found;  but  the 
testimony,  meager  though  it  be,  tends  to  indicate  that  in 
1535,  as  in  1582,  they  lived  on  the  Rio  Grande  about  the 
junction  of  the  Rio  Conchos  and  northward  in  the  present 
state  of  Chihuahua,  Mexico. 


The  first  Jumano  seen  by  Cabeza  de  Vaca  was  a  woman, 
a  captive  among  an  unknown  tribe,  members  of  which  were 
guiding  the  forlorn  Spaniards  across  the  desolate  and  broken 
country  toward  the  west  in  southwestern  Texas.  Reaching 
the  Rio  Grande,  Castillo  and  the  negro  Estevanico,  who  had 
journeyed  ahead,  came  to  a  town  at  which  the  captive 
woman's  father  lived,  "and  these  habitations  were  the  first 
seen,  having  the  appearance  and  structure  of  houses." 
The  inhabitants  subsisted  on  beans  and  squashes,  and  the 
Spaniards  also  had  seen  maize.  Besides  food,  the  natives 
gave  the  white  men  buffalo-robes — seemingly  the  first  of 
their  sort  mentioned  in  history.  The  Indians  came  in  num 
bers  and  took  the  Spaniards  "to  the  settled  habitations  of 
others,  who  lived  upon  the  same  food."  It  may,  I  think, 
be  assumed  that  these  other  habitations  were  those  of  other 
Jumano,  although  Cabeza  de  Vaca  mentions  that  from  the 
second  settlement  of  houses  onward  was  another  usage. 
"Those  who  knew  of  our  approach, "  he  says,  "did  not  come 
out  to  receive  us  on  the  road  as  the  others  had  done,  but  we 
found  them  in  their  houses,  and  they  had  made  others  for 
our  reception.  They  were  all  seated  with  their  faces  turned 
to  the  wall,  their  heads  down,  the  hair  brought  before  their 
eyes,  and  their  property  placed  in  a  heap  in  the  middle  of 
the  house.  From  this  place  they  began  to  give  us  many 
blankets  of  skin;  and  they  had  nothing  they  did  not  bestow. 
They  have  the  finest  persons  of  any  people  we  saw,"  he 
continues,  "of  the  greatest  activity  and  strength,  who  best 
understood  us  and  intelligently  answered  our  inquiries. 
We  called  them  the  Cow  Nation,  because  most  of  the  cattle 
[buffalo]  killed  are  slaughtered  in  their  neighborhood,1 
and  along  up  that  river  for  more  than  fifty  leagues  they 
destroy  great  numbers." 

The  narrator  continues:  "They  go  entirely  naked  after 
the  manner  of  the  first  we  saw.2  The  women  are  dressed 
with  deer-skin,  and  some  few  men,  mostly  the  aged,  who  are 

1  The  neighborhood  here  referred  to  was  not  the  immediate  vicinity,  and  the  stream 
alluded  to  was  much  more  likely  to  have  been  the  Pecos  than  the  Rio  Grande,  up 
which  they  were  now  journeying,  the  former  river  having  been  named  "Rio  de  lac 
Vacas"  by  Espejo  in  1583. 

2  The  rude  Indians  of  the  eastern  coast  of  Texas. 


incapable  of  fighting.  The  country  is  very  populous.  We 
asked  how  it  was  they  did  not  plant  maize.  They  answered 
it  was  that  they  might  not  lose  what  they  should  put  in 
the  ground;  that  the  rains  had  failed  for  two  years  in  suc 
cession,  and  the  seasons  were  so  dry  the  seed  had  every 
where  been  taken  by  the  moles,  and  they  could  not  venture 
to  plant  again  until  after  water  had  fallen  copiously.  They 
begged  us  to  tell  the  sky  to  rain,  and  to  pray  for  it,  and  we 
said  we  would  do  so. " 

Seeking  information  regarding  their  route  westward,  the 
Spaniards  were  told  that  "the  path  was  along  up  by  that 
river  [the  Rio  Grande]  towards  the  north,  for  otherwise  in 
a  journey  of  seventeen  days  we  could  find  nothing  to  eat, 
except  a  fruit  they  call  chacan,  that  is  ground  between  stones, 
and  even  then  it  could  with  difficulty  be  eaten  for  its  dryness 
and  pungency, — which  was  true.  They  showed  it  to  us 
there,  and  we  could  not  eat  it.  They  informed  us  also  that, 
whilst  we  traveled  by  the  river  upward,  we  should  all  the 
way  pass  through  a. people  that  were  their  enemies,  who 
spoke  their  tongue,  and,  though  they  had  nothing  to  give 
us  to  eat,  they  would  receive  us  with  the  best  good  will, 
and  present  us  with  mantles  of  cotton,  hides,  and  other 
articles  of  their  wealth  .  .  .  Their  method  of  cooking 
is  so  new  that  for  its  strangeness  I  desire  to  speak  of  it; 
thus  it  may  be  seen  and  remarked  how  curious  and  diversified 
are  the  contrivances  and  ingenuity  of  the  human  family. 
Not  having  discovered  the  use  of  pipkins,  to  boil  what  they 
would  eat,  they  fill  the  half  of  a  large  calabash  with  water, 
and  throw  on  the  fire  many  stones  of  such  as  are  most  con 
venient  and  readily  take  the  heat.  When  hot,  they  are 
taken  up  with  tongs  of  sticks  and  dropped  into  the  calabash 
until  the  water  in  it  boils  from  the  fervor  of  the  stones. 
Then  whatever  is  to  be  cooked  is  put  in,  and  until  it  is  done 
they  continue  taking  out  cooled  stones  and  throwing  in 
hot  ones.  Thus  they  boil  their  food." 

We  dwell  thus  at  length  on  Cabeza  de  Vaca's  account, 
as  it  is  the  first  reference  to  the  Jumano  in  history,  and 
because  it  affords  the  earliest  information  as  to  what  manner 
of  people  they  were.  There  are  few  Indian  tribes,  whose 


6 

history  forms  part  of  that  of  our  own  land,  that  have  a 
record  traceable  to  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century.3 

The  next  Spaniards  to  pass  through  the  Jumano  country 
were  Francisco  Sanchez  Chamuscado  and  his  party  in 
company  with  three  missionaries,  in  1581 ;  but  no  new  light 
is  thrown  on  the  tribe  in  question,  and  indeed  there  is  no 
definite  evidence  in  the  account  of  two  of  the  soldiers4  who 
were  members  of  the  little  party  that  they  were  seen  at  all, 
although  the  Rio  Grande  was  followed  northward  from  its 
junction  with  the  Conchos. 

Much  more  definite  information,  however,  is  afforded 
by  the  next  Spaniards  to  traverse  their  territory,  led  by 
Antonio  de  Espejo,  who,  in  November,  1582,  set  out  from 
San  Bartolome",  in  Chihuahua,  and  followed  the  bank  of 
the  Rio  Grande  northward  from  the  mouth  of  the  Conchos. 
From  about  the  junction  onward  for  twelve  days'  journey 
Espejo  was  among  these  people,  who,  he  says,  occupied 
five  villages  with  an  aggregate  population  of  ten  thousand 
— perhaps  four-fold  the  actual  number,  as  Espejo's  estimates 
are  always  greatly  exaggerated.  The  Jumano  did  not  at 
first  receive  the  strangers  with  the  same  friendliness  as  was 
shown  Cabeza  de  Vaca  and  his  companions,  although  it 
might  be  said  that  the  latter  met  with  a  reception,  owing 
to  the  magic  power  that  they  were  supposed  to  possess  and 
the  awe  inspired  by  it,  such  as  perhaps  has  never  been 
experienced  by  white  men  since  their  time.  Espejo  gives 
a  rather  definite  account  of  the  Indians  under  discussion, 
who,  it  will  be  observed,  occupied  the  valley  of  the  Rio 
Grande  from  the  Conchos  northward  almost  to  the  boundary 
of  the  present  New  Mexico.  He  says  they  were  called 
Jumanos,  and  by  the  Spaniards  Patarabueyes.  Some  of 
their  houses  were  terraced,  while  others  were  of  straw. 
The  faces  of  the  Indians  were  striated,  evidently  meaning 


8  See  Relation  of  Alvar  Nunez  Cdbeca  de  Vaca,  translated  by  Buckingham  Smith, 
New  York,  1871;  The  Journey  of  Alvar  Nunez  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  translated  by  Fanny 
Bandelier,  New  York,  1905;  The  Narrative  of  Alvar  Nunez  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  edited  by 
F.  W.  Hodge,  in  Original  Narratives  of  Early -American  History,  New  York,  1807. 

4  See  the  Relacion  of  Barrundo  and  Escalante,  and  other  documents  bearing  on 
the  journey,  in  Coleccion  de  Documentor  Ineditos  del  Archive  de  Indias,  xv,  pp.  80-150, 
Madrid,  1871. 


tattooed,  as  the  sequel  will  show.  They  cultivated  maize, 
calabashes,  and  beans;  hunted  animals  and  birds,  and  es 
pecially  the  buffalo,  and  caught  fish  of  many  kinds  in  the 
two  streams  that  united  within  their  territory.  They  had 
lakes  within  their  domain,  from  which  they  obtained  salt 
during  certain  seasons  as  good  as  that  from  the  sea.  Of 
special  importance  in  the  identification  of  the  people  met 
by  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  Espejo  states  that  three  Christians  and 
a  negro  had  passed  through  the  Jumano  country  years 
before,  in  whom  he  naturally  recognized  "Alvaro  Nunez 
Cabeza  de  Vaca,  y  Dorantes,  y  Castillo  Maldonado,  y  un 
negro, "  who,  as  is  well  known,  finally  reached  Culiacan 
and  the  City  of  Mexico  after  trials  and  suffering  almost 
beyond  belief.5 

Juan  de  Onate,  colonizer  of  New  Mexico  and  founder  of 
Santa  Fe*,  passed  over  Espejo's  route  for  a  part  of  his  journey 
through  Chihuahua  to  the  new  province,  but  instead  of 
traversing  the  Conchos  to  its  junction  with  the  Rio  Grande, 
he  made  a  more  northerly  course  to  the  crossing  of  the  latter 
stream  at  the  present  El  Paso,  consequently  leaving  the 
country  of  the  Jumano  on  his  right. 

Whether  the  Jumano  had  entirely  shifted  their  habitat 
between  1582  and  1598  is  not  definitely  known,  but  it  seems 
probable  that  they  had  not.  Espejo  had  returned  to  Mexico 
by  way  of  the  Rio  Pecos,  leaving  it  for  the  Conchos  some 
120  leagues  below  Pecos  pueblo,  hence  missing  the 
Jumano  territory  of  eastern  New  Mexico  which  later  became 
known.  And,  as  we  have  seen,  Onate  did  not  follow  a 
course  in  the  journey  northward  with  his  colonists  that 
would  have  enabled  him  to  see  the  Jumano  of  the  Conchos- 
Rio  Grande  junction. 

But  we  have  definite  knowledge  that  the  Jumano  lived 
in  the  present  New  Mexico  at  least  as  early  as  the  time  of 
Onate,  i.  e.  in  1598,  for  on  October  6  of  that  year  he  departed 
with  the  father  commissary  "to  the  salinas  of  the  Pecos, 
which  are  of  many  leagues  of  indefinite  salt,  very  beau 
tiful  and  white;  and  to  the  pueblos  of  the  Xumases  or 

*For  the  Eepejo  expedition,  see    Coleccion  de  Documentos  Ineditot  del  Archive  de 
India*,  xv,  101  et  seq.,  1871. 


8 

Rayados,  which  are  three:  one  very  large,  and  they  saw 
the  others."6 

There  were  in  reality  four  instead  of  three  important 
villages  of  the  Jumano  in  New  Mexico  at  the  close  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  their  names,  according  to  Oiiate,  being 
Atripuy,  Genobey,  Quelotetrey,  and  Pataotrey.7  These, 
with  many  villages  of  the  Pueblo  Indians  from  Pecos  south 
ward  through  the  country  known  as  the  Salinas,  were  placed 
under  the  ministration  of  Fray  Francisco  de  San  Miguel; 
but  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  friar  visited  all  of  them, 
and  it  is  quite  certain  that  no  churches  were  built  in  this 
immediate  region  at  so  early  a  date.8 

The  Salinas  referred  to  are  situated  in  the  central  portion 
of  that  part  of  Valencia  county,  New  Mexico,  lying  east  of 
the  Rio  Grande.  Bounding  the  salt  lagoon  area  on  the 
south  is  the  Mesa  de  los  Jumanos,  or,  as  it  is  termed  on 
present-day  if  not  altogether  "modern"  maps,  "Mesa 
Jumanes."  This  land-mark  of  course  derived  its  name 
from  the  tribe  which  formerly  occupied  the  vicinity,  a  fact 
illustrating  the  persistency  with  which  aboriginal  names 
are  sometimes  retained  in  the  Southwest,  even  where  good 
excuse  may  exist  for  forgetting  them. 

The  Salinas  country,  although  known  far  and  wide  for 
its  generally  inhospitable  and  forbidding  character,  was 
inhabited  at  the  opening  of  the  seventeenth  century  and  for 


6  Discurso  de  las  Jornadas,  Documentos  Ineditos  del  Archivo  de  Indias,  xvi,  266-267, 
Madrid,  1871. 

7Bandelier  (Final  Report,  pt.  i,  p.  167,  1890)  suggests  that  the  pueblos  of  Cuel<5ce 
Xenopue,  and  Patasce,  mentioned  in  the  Obediencia  y  Vasallaje  a  Su  Magested  por 
los  Indies  del  Pueblo  del  Cue*loce  (Doc.  Ined.  de  Indias,  xvi,  123-124)  are  identifiable 
with  Quelotetrey,  Genobey,  and  Pataotrey,  respectively.  Indeed,  it  seems  practically 
certain  that  such  is  the  case.  The  Obediencia  says:  ...  "el  Pueblo  de  Cueldce 
que  llaman  de  los  rayados.  .  .  Yolha,  Capitan  que  dicen  se"r  del  Pueblo  y  gente 
deste  Pueblo  de  Cueldce;  Pocastaquf,  Capitan  del  Pueblo  de  Xenopue";  Haye,  Capitan 
del  Pueblo  de  Patasce  y  Chili  [pueblo  of  Chilili  by  error?],  Capitan  del  Pueblo  de  Abo. " 
These  names  are  transcribed  in  the  hope  that  eventually  they  may  prove  of  some 
linguistic  service. 

8  "  Al  Padre  Fray  Francisco  de  Sant  Miguel,  la  provincia  de  los  Pecos  con  los  siete 
Pueblos  del  a  Cie*nega  que  le  cae  al  Oriente,  y  todas  los  baqueros  de  aquella  cordillera 
y  comarca  hasta  la  Sierra  Nevada,  y  los  Pueblos  de  la  Gran  Salina,  .  .  .  i  asi  mismo 
los  tres  Pueblos  grandes  de  Xumanas  6  rrayados,  llamados  en  su  lengua,  atripuy, 

genobey,  quelotetrey,  pataotrey  con  sus  subgetos. " Obediencia  y  vasallaje  a  Su 

Magestad  por  los  Indies  del  Pueblo  de  San  Juan  Baptista,  Doc.  Ined.  de  Indiaa,  op. 
cit.,  xvi,  113-114. 


9 

twenty-five  years  later,  by  the  eastern  divisions  of  the  Tigua 
and  Piro  (the  latter  sometimes  being  known  as  Tompiro), 
as  well  as  by  the  Jumano.  The  former  two  groups  belong 
to  the  Tanoan  linguistic  family  and  inhabited  several  pueblos 
similar  to  those  of  their  Rio  Grande  congeners.  When, 
in  1626,  Fray  Alonso  Benavides,  the  Father  Custodian  of 
the  missions  of  New  Mexico,  appealed  for  additional  mission 
aries,  he  had  particularly  in  mind  the  conversion  of  the 
tribes  of  the  Salinas  region,  especially  the  Jumano,  among 
whom  Fray  Juan  de  Salas  had  already  been.  Says  Benavides, 
writing  in  1630,  "  I  kept  putting  off  the  Xumanas  who  were 
asking  for  him  [Salas],  until  God  should  send  more  laborers." 
Through  their  affection  for  Salas,  the  founder  of  the 
mission  of  Isleta,  the  Jumano  went  year  after  year  for  some 
six  years  prior  to  1629  to  visit  him  at  that  Rio  Grande 
mission  station  in  the  hope,  they  asserted,  that  he  might 
come  to  live  among  them.  Finally,  on  July  22,  1629,9 
a  delegation  of  some  fifty  Jumano  visited  the  pueblo  of  San 
Antonio  de  Isleta,  where  the  custodian  (probably  Estevan 
de  Perea)  was  then  staying,  for  the  purpose  of  again  asking 
for  friars;  and  " being  questioned  as  to  what  induced  them 
to  make  this  demand,  they  said  that  a  woman  wearing  the 
habit  had  urged  them  to  come;  and  being  shown  a  picture 
of  Mother  Luisa  de  Carrion,  they  rejoiced,  and  speaking 
to  each  other  said  that  the  lady  who  had  sent  them  resembled 
the  picture,  except  that  she  was  younger  and  more  beautiful." 
Fray  Juan  de  Salas  and  Fray  Diego  Lopez  volunteered  to 
go,  accompanied  by  an  escort  of  three  soldiers.  They  found 
the  Jumano  this  time  more  than  112  leagues  (about  300 
miles)  to  the  eastward  from  Santa  Fe",  or  possibly  in  the 
western  part  of  the  present  Kansas  in  the  vicinity  of  what 
later  became  known  as  El  Quartelejo.  The  cause  of  this 
shifting  may  have  been  due  to  the  hostility  among  the  tribes 
of  the  Salinas  about  this  time,  of  which  Benavides  speaks, 
for  subsequent  history  seems  to  indicate  that  the  Jumano 
were  never  an  aggressive  people.  Not  to  enter  into  detail 
regarding  the  miracles  which  Salas  and  his  companion  are 

'Benavides,  Memorial,  1630,  in  Land  of  Sunshine,  Los  Angeles,  California,  vol. 
xiv,  p.  46,  1901.     Vetancurt,  Cronica,  pp.  302-305,  Mexico,  reprint  1871. 


10 

said  to  have  performed  among  the  Jumano  on  the  plains, 
some  30  or  40  leagues  west  of  the  "Quiviras"  (who  are 
identified  with  the  Wichita  tribe  of  Kansas),  it  may  be  said 
that  the  missionaries  found  2,000  of  these  Indians,  who, 
with  many  others  from  neighboring  tribes  (Benavides  says 
there  were  10,000  in  all),  clamored  loudly  for  baptism,  while 
two  hundred  lame,  blind,  and  halt  rose  up  well  "when  the 
sign  of  the  cross  was  made  and  the  words  of  the  Gospel 
pronounced  over  them. "  Indeed,  they  were  inspired  "with 
so  great  devotion  to  the  cross  that  they  fell  on  their  knees 
before  every  cross  and  adored  it,  and  in  their  houses,10  over 
their  doors,  they  put  crosses. " 

After  remaining  some  days,  the  fathers  departed  for  the 
valley  of  the  Rio  Grande ;  and  it  would  seem  that  the  Jumano 
soon  followed,  for,  according  to  Vetancurt,  "owing  to  the 
continual  invasions,  and  wars  with  their  enemies  the  Apaches, 
this  conversion  could  not  lead  to  a  permanent  result  in  that 
place,  and  hence  they  removed  to  the  Christians  near 
Quarac,"  whence  they  were  ministered. 

There  has  been  much  discussion  regarding  the  location 
of  the  "pueblo"  occupied  by  the  Jumano  that  was  dedicated 
to  "the  glorious  Isidoro."  We  may  assume  that  it  was  not 
until  after  the  visit  of  Salas  to  the  Jumano  on  the  plains 
in  July-August,  1629,  that  this  mission  was  founded,  since 
the  new  friars  did  not  arrive  from  Mexico  until  Easter  of 
that  year,  and  prior  to  that  time  no  permanent  missionaries 
were  available  even  had  the  Jumano  not  been  three  hundred 
miles  away  on  the  prairies.  We  learn  from  the  Relacion 
of  Fray  Estevan  Perea,11  the  successor  of  Benavides  as  cus 
todian  of  the  missions  of  New  Mexico,  and  under  whose 
guidance  the  new  missionaries  came  in  the  spring  of  1629, 
that  there  were  sent  to  the  pueblos  of  the  Salinas — "in  the 
great  pueblo  of  the  Xumanas,  and  in  those  called  Pyros  and 
Tompiras" — six  priests  and  two  lay  religious,  one  of  whom, 
Francisco  de  Letrado,  is  known  to  have  been  assigned  to 
the  Jumano  alone.  It  does  not  seem  necessary  to  look  for 

10 According  to  Vetancurt,  op.  cit.,  Benavides  says:  "They  each  one  placed  it 
[a  cross]  on  the  front  of  his  tent,  "  indicating  that  they  were  living  in  temporary  abodes 
while  hunting  the  buffalo  on  the  plains. 

"Translated  in  the  Land  of  Sunshine,  xv,  BOS.  5  and  6,  Nov.  and  Dec.,  1901. 


11 

the  "  great  pueblo  of  the  Xumanos"  of  which  Benavides 
speaks,  among  the  ruins  of  eastern  New  Mexico,  from 
amongst  the  debris  of  which  the  massive  walls  of  former 
Spanish  churches  and  monasteries  still  rise,  for  it  is  scarcely 
likely  that  the  Jumano  occupied  a  village  other  than  their 
own,  or  that  the  settlement  was  anything  but  an  aggregation 
of  dwellings  of  the  more  or  less  temporary  kind  which  they 
were  found  to  occupy  when  visited  by  Cabeza  de  Vaca  and 
by  Espejo  on  the  lower  Rio  Grande.12 

That  active  missionary  work  was  conducted  by  Letrado 
among  the  Jumano  is  certain.  We  have  seen  that  this 
friar  was  assigned  to  the  tribe  soon  after  his  arrival  in  New 
Mexico  as  a  member  of  Perea's  band  in  the  spring  of  1629; 
but  three  years  later  we  find  him  at  Zuni  on  his  way  to  con 
vert  the  savage  and  little-known  "Cipias,"  although  he  was 
murdered  by  the  Zuni  before  he  reached  them,  on  February  22, 
1632 — a  century  to  the  day  before  the  birth  of  Washington. 

Why  missionary  work  among  the  Jumano  was  thus 
apparently  abandoned,  there  is  no  definite  knowledge,  but 
it  would  seem  to  have  been  due  to  another  shifting  of  the 
tribe  from  New  Mexico  to  the  plains,  and  another  change 
from  their  erstwhile  sedentary  life  to  that  of  buffalo  hunters. 
There  is  a  suggestion  of  this,  indeed,  in  an  account  written 
by  Fray  Alonso  de  Posadas,13  who  states  that  Fray  Juan  de 


12  Compare  Bandelier,  Gilded  Man,  p.  255, 1893,  and  Final  Report,pt.  1,131 ,  132,  168, 
and  pt.  n,  p.  267;  also  Fifth  Annual  Report  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Archce- 
ological  Institute  of  America,  pp.  37,  85,  1884.  We  must  assume  that  the  four  "puerc- 
blos"  occupied  by  the  tribe  in  Onate's  time  (1598)  had  all  been  abandoned  and  that 
the  "great  pueblo  of  the  Xumanos"  mentioned  by  Benavides  had  been  established 
after  the  Jumano  had  been  induced  by  Salas  to  return  from  the  plains.  Bandelier 
suggests  that  the  Piro  pueblo  of  Tabira  was  probably  the  village  of  the  Jumano,  but 
I  find  no  evidence  that  the  Piro  and  the  Jumano  occupied  a  settlement  together 
(Bandelier,  Final  Report,  pt.,  I,  pp.  131,  132).  Escalante  (op.  cit.,  Land  of  Sunshine, 
March,  1900,  p.  248)  states  that  on  account  of  Apache  hostilities  the  pueblos  of  Chilili, 
Tafique  (Tajique),  and  Quarac  of  the  Tehua  (Tigua)  Indians;  and  Abd,  Jumancas, 
and  Tabira  of  the  Tompiros,  were  abandoned.  That  "Jumancas"  and  the  "Pueblo 
de  los  Jumanos  "  were  one  and  the  same  there  appears  to  be  no  doubt,  consequently 
if  Jumancas  and  Tabira  had  been  the  same  village  they  would  hardly  have  been 
mentioned  as  distinct.  Escalante,  who  wrote  in  1778,  gathered  his  information 
from  the  official  archives  at  Santa  Fe". 

8"Informe  a  S.  M.  sobre  las  tierras  de  Nuevo  Mejico,  Quivira  y  Teguayo, "  in 
Fernandez  Duro,  Don  Diego  de  Penalosa,  Madrid,  1882,  p.  59.  Posadas  was  custodian 
of  the  missions  of  New  Mexico  in  1661-64,  during  the  governorship  of  the  notorious 
Don  Diego  de  Penalosa  y  Briceno,  and  was  a  missionary  there  for  ten  years  previously. 
His  Informe  was  written  after  1678. 


12 

Salas  and  Fray  Juan  (Diego?)  de  Ortega,  with  an  escort, 
visited  the  Jumano  on  a  stream  which  they  called  Rio 
Nueces,  and  Ortega  remained  among  them  for  six  months. 
From  this  account  the  Rio  Nueces  might  have  been  almost 
anywhere  in  the  country  of  the  plains,  and  not  necessarily 
the  present  Rio  Nueces  of  Texas.14  The  important  point, 
however,  is  the  fact  that  Letrado  had  abandoned  his  station 
among  the  Jumano  in  eastern  New  Mexico  in  1632,  and 
that  in  the  same  year  Salas  went  forth  again  on  the  plains 
apparently  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  them  back. 

The  history  of  New  Mexico  between  Benavides'  time  and 
the  great  Pueblo  rebellion  of  1680  is  meager  indeed,  conse 
quently  of  the  shiftings  of  the  Jumano,  if  any  there  were 
during  that  period,  little  is  known.  In  1650  they  were 
evidently  still  on  the  plains,  for,  according  to  Posadas, 
Captain  Hernan  Martin  and  Diego  de  Castillo  in  that  year 
went  with  some  soldiers  and  Christian  Indians  200  leagues 
from  Santa  F6  to  the  "Rio  Nueces"  where  the  Jumano  were 
again  found.  They  remained  in  the  region  more  than  six 
months,  going  southeastward  down  the  river  for  50  leagues, 
visiting  the  Cuitoas,  Escanjaques,  and  Aijaos,  and  finally 
the  Tejas.  During  their  journey  the  party  traversed,  from 
north  to  south,  a  distance  of  250  leagues,  or,  according  to 
Posadas,  from  the  latitude  of  Santa  Fe  in  37°  to  that  of  the 
Tejas  in  28°.  It  should  here  be  noted  that  the  Escanjaques 
have  always  been  identified  with  the  Kansas  or  Kaw  Indians, 
and  such  may  be  the  case.  The  Cuitoas,  the  Tejas  (Texas 
or  Hasinai),  and  the  Aijaos,  however,  were  Texan  tribes, 
and  indeed  the  last,  as  later  will  be  seen,  are  identifiable 
with  no  other  than  the  Tawehash,  the  name  of  the  southern 
branch  of  the  Wichita,  sometimes  applied  to  the  entire 
Wichita  group,  as  well  as  to  the  Wichita  proper.  This 
point  should  be  borne  in  mind,  as  the  Jumano  and  the  Aijaos 
are  here  mentioned  as  if  two  distinct  tribes. 

In  1654  another  journey  was  made  to  the  Jumano  on 
the  Rio  Nueces  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  Diego  de  Guadalajara, 
with  30  soldiers  and  200  Christian  Indians.  The  Cuitoas, 


"Compare  Bandelier,  Final  Report,  pt.  i,  167,  note,  1890;  Bancroft,  North  Mexican 
State*  and   Texas,    i,   386,    1886. 


13 

Escanjaques,  and  Aijaos  were  this  time  at  war.  Captain 
Andres  Lopez,  of  the  party,  with  twelve  soldiers,  together 
with  some  of  the  Christian  Indians  and  Jumano,  were  sent 
forward,  finding  a  rancheria  of  Cuitoas,  30  leagues  eastward, 
whom  they  severely  defeated. 

These  facts  are  mentioned  for  the  purpose  of  showing 
that  the  Jumano,  at  least,  although  friendly  toward  the 
Spaniards,  had  apparently  not  occupied  eastern  New  Mexico 
for  some  twenty-two  years  prior  to  1654,  but  that  they  were 
living  on  the  plains  and  leading  their  customary  semi- 
sedentary  life. 

As  previously  stated,  Fray  Juan  de  Salas,  earlier  in  the 
century,  found  the  Jumano  on  the  prairies  about  112  leagues 
eastward  from  the  Rio  Grande.  But  distances  given  by 
the  early  Spanish  travelers  must  be  regarded  as  only  approx 
imate,  and  there  is  no  reason  for  believing  that  the  tribe 
had  moved  farther  away  simply  because  Captains  Martin 
and  Castillo,  in  1650,  are  said  to  have  found  the  Jumano  on 
the  Nueces  200  leagues  from  Santa  Fe.  They  may  have 
been  in  practically  the  same  spot  during  this  quarter  century. 

There  is  ground  for  strong  suspicion  that  the  village  or 
villages  of  the  Jumano  on  the  plains  at  this  time  were  in 
proximity  to  if  not  actually  at  the  Quartelejo,  or  Cuartelejo, 
mentioned  frequently  by  writers  of  the  18th  century.  The 
distance  of  the  Jumano  from  Santa  F£,  according  to  two 
writers  above  cited,  varied  from  112  to  200  leagues  (300  to 
530  miles);  while  El  Quartelejo,  according  to  the  record, 
was  from  130  to  160  leagues  (350  to  425  miles)  from  the 
New  Mexican  capital.15  This  Indian  outpost  was  situated 
in  the  valley  of  Beaver  creek,  in  northern  Scott  county, 
Kansas,  as  has  been  shown  by  Williston  and  Martin.16 

El  Quartelejo  first  appears  in  history  about  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  "  some  families  of  Christian 

"Bandelier  in  Arch.  Inst.  Papers,  Am.  Series,  v,  182,  183,  1890;  Bancroft,  Hitt. 
Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  237,  1889. 

16 "Some  Pueblo  Ruins  in  Scott  County,  Kansas,  "  in  Kansas  Historical  Collections, 
vol.  6,  p.  124,  Topeka,  1900.  See  also  a  comment  on  the  article  by  the  present  writer 
in  American  Anthropologist,  vol.  2,  1900,  p.  778.  For  the  location  of  Quivira,  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  was  beyond  the  Jumano  settlements  on  the  plains,  see  Hodge, 
"Coronado's  March  to  Quivira,"  in  Brower,  Harahey  (Memoirs  of  Explorations  in 
the  Basin  of  the  Mississippi),  St.  Paul  1899. 


14 

Indians  of  the  pueblo  and  tribe  of  Taos  uprose,  withdrew 
to  the  plains  of  Cibola  [i.  e.  the  buffalo  plains],  and  fortified 
themselves  in  a  place  which  afterward  was  for  this  reason 
called  the  Cuartelejo.  And  they  were  in  it  until  Don  Juan 
de  Archuleta  [in  1652?],  by  order  of  the  Governor,  went 
with  20  soldiers  and  a  party  of  auxiliary  Indians  and  brought 
them  back  to  their  pueblo.  He  found  in  the  possession  of 
these  revolted  Taos,  casques  and  other  pieces  of  copper  and 
tin;  and  when  he  asked  them  whence  they  had  acquired 
these,  they  replied  'from  the  Quivira  pueblos/  to  which 
they  had  journeyed  from  the  Cuartelejo. . . .  From  Cuar 
telejo  in  that  direction  one  goes  to  the  Pananas  [Pawnees]; 
and  to-day  it  is  seen  with  certainty  that  there  are  no  other 
pueblos  besides  the  said  [Panana]  ones,  with  which  the  French 
were  by  then  already  trading.  Besides  this  in  all  the  pueblos 
which  the  English  and  French  have  discovered,  from  the 
Jumano  to  the  north  or  northeast,  we  do  not  know  any  to 
have  been  found  of  the  advancement  and  riches  which  used 
to  be  imagined  of  the  Gran  Quivira."17 

It  has  been  seen  that  the  Jumano  were  still  on  the  plains 
in  1654,  and  that  their  former  settlement  in  the  Salinas  of 
New  Mexico  had  evidently  long  been  abandoned.  It  is  said 
that,  in  1670,  "  many  Indians  from  the  Pueblo  of  the  Jumanos 
were  at  El  Paso,  but  the  roads  to  the  [former]  Jumano 
country  [the  Salinas]  were  closed  by  the  Apaches,"18  whose 
depredations  soon  became  so  serious  that  between  the  years 
1669  and  1675  every  settlement  of  the  Piro  and  Tigua  east 
of  the  Rio  Grande  had  been  permanently  abandoned  on  their 
account.  I  find  no  evidence  that  any  Jumano  inhabited  that 
part  of  New  Mexico  at  this  time,  however,19  nor  is  there  any 


17  Letter  of  Fray  Silvestre  Velez  de  Escalante,  April  2,  1778,  translated  in  Land  of 
Sunshine,  Los  Angeles,  Cala.,  vol.  xn,  p.  314,  1900.  The  citation  tends  also  to  show 
the  proximity  of  El  Quartelejo  and  the  "Quivira"  or  Wichita  settlements. 

l8Libro  Primer o  de  Casamientos  de  el  Paso  del  Norte,  fol.  12,  cited  by  Bandelier, 
Final  Report,  pt.  n,  p.  267. 

19 See  Vetancurt  (Cronica,  p.  325,  reprint  1871),  who  says:  "San  Gabriel  Abbo 
[Ab6J  tiene  su  sitio  en  el  Valle  de  las  Salinas .  . .  Tiene  dos  pueblos  pequenos,  Tenabo 
y  Tabira,  con  ochocientas  personas  que  administraba  un  religiose:  hasta  aqui  llega 
la  administracion  hacia  el  Oriente,  aunque  quince  leguas  de  alii  hay  algunos  xumanas, 
que  eran  de  Quarac  [Quarrd  or  Cuaraf]  administrados. "  This  would  indicate  that 
these  Christian  Jumano  were  settled  a  number  of  miles  east  of  their  old  villages  or 
rancherias  at  the  Mesa  de  los  Jumanos,  which  is  only  10  or  15  miles  in  a  straight 


15 

indication  that  they  were  in  New  Mexico  at  the  outbreak 
of  the  Pueblo  rebellion  of  1680  or  that  they  participated  in 
that  bloody  revolt  during  the  succeeding  twelve  years. 

During  this  period  the  government  of  New  Mexico  was 
administered  from  El  Paso,  the  provincial  capital  (Santa  Fe*) 
having  been  completely  abandoned  in  1680.  On  October 
20,  1683,  more  than  200  Jumano  visited  El  Paso  for  the 
purpose  of  asking  for  missionaries,  "stating  that  thirty-two 
tribes  were  waiting  for  baptism,  because,  being  on  the  point 
of  fighting  a  great  battle,  and  anxious  because  they  were 
few  while  the  enemy  were  more  than  30,000  in  number, 
they  invoked  the  aid  of  the  holy  cross,  of  which  they  had 
heard  from  their  forefathers,  and  at  once  there  descended 
through  the  air  a  cross  wrought  in  red,  with  a  pedestal  two 
yards  in  breadth. . .  and  that  when  this  cross  was  put  on 
their  banner,  they  had  conquered  their  enemies  without 
losing  a  man,  and  gaining  much  spoils  of  war."  Having 
acknowledged  the  miracle,  they  came  to  ask  for  baptism. 
Three  friars  went  to  them  and  found  "a  great  multitude  of 
Xumanas  and  Tejas;  they  decided  to  return  with  better 
preparation  and  a  greater  number  of  ministers. .  .Some 
friars  returned  with  the  intention  of  going  among  the  Xuman 
as  and  Tejas,  to  Caracoles  river,  where  it  is  said  that  pearls 
are  fished,  in  order  that  they  might  ascertain  the  truth. . . 
The  apparition  of  the  cross  turned  out  to  be  uncertain, 
because  it  was  a  ruse  devised  by  an  Indian  of  the  Tejas  in 
order  that  the  Spaniards  might  help  them  to  cross  the  Con 
chas  river  to  their  land,  which  passage  the  Apaches  were 
trying  to  prevent;  and  such  chimeras  are  often  tried  by  the 
Indians,  because  they  know  how  easily  the  Spaniards  can 
be  made  to  believe  them."20 

This  statement  is  generally  too  indefinite  to  be  of  much 
value  beyond  the  fact  that  the  Jumano — or  at  least  some 
of  them — again  ventured  across  the  plains  as  far  as  El  Paso, 
with  another  miracle  to  unfold.  We  may  not  assume  from 

course  east  of  the  ruius  of  Abd.     Vetancurt,  however,  who  wrote  in  1692,  lost  sight 
of  the  fact  that  all  the  pueblos  of  the  Salinas  country  had  been  abandoned  on  account 
of  Apache  depredations  prior  to  the  revolt  of  1680,  hence  there  is  little  likelihood 
that  the  Jumano  neophytes  remained. 
20  Vetancurt,  Cronica,  pp.  302-306. 


16 

the  foregoing  statement  that  the  Jumano  at  this  time  were 
dwelling  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Conchos-Rio  Grande 
junction,  where  they  were  first  met,  as  there  is  definite 
evidence  that  their  old  home  had  become  occupied  by  the 
Conchos,  Julimes,  and  Chocolomos,21  who,  so  far  as  is  known, 
were  unrelated. 

In  December,  1683,  according  to  Escalante,  "there  arrived 
at  El  Paso,  Juan  Sabeata,22  an  Indian  of  the  Jumano  nation, 
saying  that  all  his  people  wished  to  be  reclaimed  to  the  Faith, 
and  asked  for  ministers;  and  that  not  very  far  from  their 
country  were  the  Tejas,  of  whom  he  related  so  many  things 
that  he  caused  it  to  be  believed  that  that  province  was  one 
of  the  most  advanced,  fertile,  and  rich  in  this  America. 
For  which  reason  Fray  Nicholas  Lopez,  then  vice-custodian, 
desirous  of  propagating  the  Gospel,  determined  to  go  apos- 
tolically,  without  escort  or  defense,  to  this  exploration  with 
Fray  Juan  de  Zavaleta  and  Fray  Antonio  de  Acevedo. " 
The  governor,  however,  thought  it  unsafe  for  the  fathers 
to  go  alone,  so  he  formed  an  expedition  of  volunteers  under 
command  of  Juan  Domingo  (Dominguez)  de  Mendoza,  who 
accompanied  the  friars  to  the  junction  of  the  Conchos  and 
Rio  Grande,  where  the  docile  Conchos,  Julimes,  and  Choco 
lomos  now  resided.  Father  Acevedo  remained  with  them 
while  the  expedition  set  out  for  the  Rio  Pecos,  and  after 
many  days  "arrived  at  a  rancheria  of  Indians  who  then 
were  called  Hediondos  ["Stinkers"].  Among  them  were 
some  Jumanes;  and  of  the  latter  [tribe]  was  Juan  Sabeata."23 
The  party  later  returned  to  El  Paso. 


21  See  Escalante,  op.  cit.,  p.  311,  and  compare  Bandelier,  Final  Report,  pt.  i,  pp. 
80-81,  85,  167,  246.  I  do  not  find  any  substantial  evidence  that  the  Julimes  and  the 
Jumanos  were  identical,  or  that  the  various  small  tribes  mentioned  in  Spanish  docu 
ments  of  the  period  were  in  any  way  related  to  the  latter.  Of  the  languages  of  the 
myriad  small  tribes  mentioned  in  the  annals  of  Texas,  practically  nothing  is  known. 
Fray  Nicolas  Lopez  recorded  a  vocabulary  of  the  Jumano  language  in  1684,  but  it 
has  disappeared. 

22 Born  in  the  Jumano  pueblo  of  New  Mexico,  according  to  Confessiones  y  Declaraci- 
ones,  etc.,  1683,  cited  by  Bandelier,  Final  Report,  pt.  i,  p.  132. 

^Escalante's  Letter  (1778)  translated  in  Land  of  Sunshine,  Los  Angeles,  vol.  xu, 
no.  5,  April,  1900,  p.  309.  Confirmatory  of  this  account  is  the  mention  of  the  same 
Juan  Sabeata,  of  the  Jumana  tribe  living  on  the  Rio  Nueces,  three  days'  journey 
eastward  from  the  mouth  of  the  Conchos,  by  Cruzati,  evidently  Governor  Cruzat  or 
Cruzate  of  New  Mexico,  who  assumed  the  office  in  1683.  Sabeata  refers  to  thirty- 
six  tribes  that  lived  on  the  Rio  Nueces  in  1683  (Cruzati  in  Mendoza,  Viage,  manuscript 


17 

Henceforward  historical  references  to  the  Jumano  are 
fewer  and  farther  between.  Bandelier  even  asserts  that 
they  "were  lost  sight  of  after  the  great  convulsions  of  1680 
and  succeeding  years,  and  their  ultimate  fate  is  as  unknown 
as  their  original  numbers.24  This  is  largely  true,  yet  there 
are  a  few  allusions  to  this  erratic  people,  under  the  name  by 
which  they  were  known  to  the  Spaniards,  reference  to  which 
will  prove  of  interest. 

In  1700,  according  to  contemporary  documents,25  the 
Jicarilla  Apache  brought  word  to  Taos,  the  northernmost 
of  the  New  Mexican  pueblos,  that  the  French  had  destroyed 
a  village  of  the  Jumano  on  the  eastern  plains;  and  in  1702 
a  campaign  was  made  by  the  Spaniards  in  that  direction 
which  resulted  only  in  loss  of  life  at  the  hands  of  the  Apache. 
It  would  seem  from  the  circumstance  of  the  destruction  of 
the  Jumano  settlement,  and  from  the  facts  that  the  Jicarilla 
Apache  at  this  time  were  at  the  Quartelejo26and  the  French 
had  penetrated  as  far  westward  as  Nebraska  or  Kansas,27 
as  well  as  into  Texas,  that  the  Jumano  village  was  in  the 
north.28  There  is  distinct  evidence,  however,  aside  from 
that  already  presented,  that  a  part  of  the  tribe  had  been  in 
Texas  for  several  years,  since  they  are  mentioned  in  French 


in  Archive  General  of  Mexico,  kindly  communicated  by  Professor  H.  E.  Bolton,  now 
of  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University). 

24  Final  Report,  pt.  i,  pp.  168,  169.     Bandelier  quotes  an  early  document  to  the 
effect  that  "as  late  as  1697  a  Jumano  Indian,  a  female  described  as  'a  striated  one 
of  the  Jumano  nation, '  was  sold  at  Santa  F£  for  a  house  of  three  rooms  and  a  small 
tract  of  land  besides.     This  woman  had  been  sold  to  the  Spaniards  by  other  Indians, 
who  had  captured  her.  " 

25  Quoted  by  Bandelier,  Contributions  to  the  History  of  the  Southwestern  Portion  of 
the  United  States,  p.  181,  1890;  also  Final  Report,  pt.  i,  p.  168,  1890.     See  also  Ban 
croft,  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  222,  1889. 

26  Bandelier,  Contributions,  Arch.  Inst.  Papers,  Am.  Ser.,  v,  183-184, 1890;  Bancroft, 
Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  222,  236,  237,  1889.     The  Quartelejo  is  here  reported  to 
have  been  130  leagues  from  Santa  Fe°. 

27  Bancroft,  History  o/  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  states,  on  the  authority  of  Padre 
Niel,  that  about  the  year  1700  two  little  French  girls  had  been  ransomed  from  the 
Navaho,  and  that  in  1698   "the  French  had  almost  annihilated  a  Navaho  force  of 
4,000  men.  "     The  latter  statement  is  probably  an  error,  while  in  regard  to  the  former 
the  Navaho  probably  obtained  the  French  girls  from  some  other  tribe,  perhaps  their 
kindred,  the  Apache. 

28 1  fear  that  Bandelier  (Final  Report,  pt.  i,  168)  has  not  sufficient  ground  for  his 
assertion  that  the  Jumario  village  of  1700  could  not  have  been  beyond  the  confines 
of  New  Mexico.  The  nearest  Jicarilla  settlement  was  40  leagues  (100  miles)  north 
east  of  Taos,  while  the  main  body— those  of  the  Quartelejo— were  130  leagues  (360 
miles)  northeast  of  Santa  Fe\  i.  e.  in  Scott  county,  Kansas.  See  page  13,  note  16. 


18 

documents  of  this  period.  Early  in  January,  1687,  for 
example,  La  Salle  heard  of  the  Choumans,  or  Choumenes 
as  they  were  called  by  the  Teao  (Tohaha)  Indians  among 
whom  he  then  was,  a  short  distance  east  of  the  Colorado 
river  of  Texas.  These  people,  he  was  informed,  were  friends 
of  the  Spaniards,  from  whom  they  got  horses;  "that  most 
of  the  said  nation  had  flat  heads,  that  they  had  Indian  corn, 
which  gave  M.  de  la  Salle  ground  to  believe  that  those 
people  were  some  of  the  same  he  had  seen  upon  his  first 
discovery.'729  Again,  in  1691,  we  are  informed,  a  few  ran- 
cherias  of  the  Jumano  were  visited  by  Governor  Terdn  de  los 
Bios,  Father  Massanet,  and  others,  on  the  Rio  Guadalupe 
of  Texas.30 

The  cause  of  the  disruption  between  the  French  and  the 
northern  Jumano  in  1700  does  not  appear,  but  the  breach 
seems  to  have  been  healed  by  1719,  in  which  year  Governor 
Antonio  Valverde  y  Cossio  led  an  expedition  northward 
and  northeastward  from  Santa  Fe  against  the  Ute  and  Co- 
manche.  On  a  stream  called  Rio  Napestle  (probably  the 
present  main  Arkansas  river),  the  Governor  met  the  Apache 
of  Quartelejo  (i.  e.  the  Jicarillas),  and  found  men  with 
gunshot  wounds  "received  from  the  French  and  their  allies, 
the  Pananas  [Pawnees]  and  Jumanas. "  Here31  again  we 
have  definite  evidence  that  a  branch  of  the  Jumano  was 
still  in  the  north  during  the  first  quarter  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  It  should  be  noted  also  that  the  Jumano  here 
mentioned  were  allies  of  the  Pawnee. 

No  definite  reference  to  the  northern  Jumano  between 
1719  and  1750  has  yet  been  found.  The  members  of  the 
ill-fated  Villazur  expedition  from  Santa  Fe*  to  the  north 
eastern  plains,  and  probably  as  far  as  the  Missouri  river, 
in  1720,  saw  nothing  of  them,  so  far  as  the  meager  account 
of  the  expedition32  shows,  although  other  tribes  are  mentioned. 


29  Joutel's  Journal  in  French,  Historical  Collections  o/  Louisiana,  pt.  I,  p.  139, 1846. 

^Teran  and  others  cited  by  Bancroft,  History  of  the  North  Mexican  States  and  Texas, 
i,  416,  1886. 

31  Bancroft,  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  236,  1889;  Bandelier,  Contributions,  182-183 
1890. 

32 See  Bandelier,  Contributions,  p.  179  et  seq.;  also  "Some  Unpublished  History  - 
A  New  Mexican  Episode  in  1748,"  Land  of  Sunshine,  vm,  February,  1898,  p.  129. 


19 

In  1750,  however,  definite  and  important  testimony  was 
offered  by  one  Pedro  Latren,  a  Frenchman  at  Santa  F6, 
who  spoke  of  a  tribe,  evidently  the  Tawehash  (Taovayas), 
called  by  the  French  "Panipiques  (Panipiquets)  alias 
Jumanes."  Latren  referred  to  these  Indians  as  "parciales 
de  los  Franceses  con  los  Cumanches."  He  also  called  them 
Piniques  and  said  they  were  four  or  five  days  from  the  French 
fort  "Canes"  or  Arkansas.33  Here  we  have  more  definite 
information  regarding  the  affiliation  of  the  Jumano  than 
has  yet  appeared,  and  accounts  to  a  greater  or  less  extent 
for  the  persistent  references  to  the  existence  of  a  Jumano 
band  in  the  north  during  a  period  of  many  years,  as  well  as 
explains  the  mention  of  the  Jumano  and  the  Aijaos  together 
in  1650.  Now,  the  Paniques,  Panipiquets,  etc.,  as  they 
were  designated  by  the  French,  were  the  Wichita,  the  tribe 
which,  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  was 
known  to  the  Spaniards  as  "Quiviras. "  The  French  desig 
nation,  of  course,  had  allusion  to  their  common  practice  of 
tattooing  the  face,  and  indicates  also  relationship  with  the 
Pawnees;  that  is,  they  were  "pricked,  or  tattooed,  Pawnee," 
a  designation  recalling  the  Jumanos  or  "Rayados"  of  Onate 
in  1598,  and  the  alliance  between  the  Jumano  and  the  Paw 
nee  mentioned  by  Valverde  y  Cossio  in  1719.  The  name 
Jumano,  it  will  also  be  seen,  was  applied  to  both  the  Wichita 
and  their  immediate  relatives  the  Tawehash,  or  Taguayazes, 
as  they  were  called  by  the  Spaniards,  a  southern  or  Texas 
branch  of  the  tribe,  long  before  the  Wichita  drifted  south 
ward  from  Kansas  to  the  vicinity  of  the  mountains  in  Okla 
homa  that  still  bear  their  name. 

Another  important  item  in  the  historical  testimony  dates 
from  1778,  on  June  15  of  which  year  a  junta  de  guerra  was 
held  in  Chihuahua,  at  which  were  present  most  of  the  mili 
tary  authorities  of  the  province.  The  report  of  the  junta 
says:  "The  Taguayazes  [Tawehash]. .  .are  known  in  New 
Mexico  by  the  name  of  'Jumanes'  also."34  The  "Ta- 

33  Declaration,  recorded  in  Spanish,  of  Pedro  Latren,  March  5,  1750,  manuscript 
in  Archivo  General  de  Mexico,  Provincias  Internas,  torno  37.  Information  kindly 
communicated  by  Professor  Herbert  E.  Bolton. 

^Cabello,  Informe,  1784,  folio  20,  manuscript.  Information  kindly  communicated 
by  Professor  Herbert  E.  Bolton. 


guayazes"  were  then  on  upper  Red  river,  hence  not  far  from 
the  region  of  the  Wichita  mountains,  their  subsequent  and 
present  home. 

A  few  years  later,  in  1789,  M.  Louis  Blanc,  commandant 
at  Natchitoches,  Louisiana,  wrote  General  Ugarte  urging 
the  opening  of  trade  between  New  Mexico  and  Louisiana 
by  establishing  a  presidio  among  the  Jumano;35  and  in  1812, 
or  thereabouts,  it  was  said  (probably  an  inspiration  due  to 
the  exploit  of  Lieutenant  Zebulon  M.  Pike  in  1806-7)  that 
the  Americans  had  established  "gun  factories"  among  the 
Jumano  and  Caigues  (Kiowa),  and  that  muskets  and  powder 
from  this  source  were  obtained  for  New  Mexico.36  The  item 
is  interesting  as  being  probably  the  first  reference  to  the 
association  of  the  Wichita-Tawehash  and  Kiowa,  who  from 
1866  occupied  the  same  reservation  in  Indian  Territory  and 
Oklahoma  until  a  large  part  was  allotted  and  the  remainder 
sold  in  1901. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  settlement  of  the  Wichita 
in  the  country  of  the  Wichita  mountains  in  the  present 
Oklahoma,  after  having  occupied  the  so-called  Quivira 
country  of  Kansas  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries. 
Further  evidence  of  the  connection  of  the  Wichita-Tawehash 
people  with  the  Jumano  is  afforded  as  late  as  1844  by  Josiah 
Gregg,  who  was  engaged  in  the  Santa  F6  trade  and  was 
personally  familiar  with  the  plains  and  their  aboriginal 
occupants.  Gregg  says  that  the  northern  portion  of  the 
Wichita  mountains  was  known  to  Mexican  ciboleros  and 
comancheros  as  Sierra  Jumanes,37  which  recalls  the  name 
still  applied  to  the  mesa  in  the  Salinas  region  of  New  Mexico. 
In  the  same  connection  Gregg  makes  the  interesting  state 
ment  that  the  range  of  hills  known  as  the  Wichita  moun 
tains  are  also  sometimes  called  Towyash  by  hunters,  "per 
haps  from  Toyavist,  the  Comanche  word  for  mountain." 
Gregg  evidently  was  unaware  that  Tawehash,  or  Towyash 
as  he  calls  it,  was  the  name  of  a  Wichita  division,  evidently 

35  Manuscript  cited  by  Bancroft,  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  276,  note,  1889. 

30  Pino,  Exposition  Sucinto,  Cadiz,  1812,  and  Noticias  Hiatoricas,  Mexico,  1849, 
cited  by  Bancroft,  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  286,  note. 

37  Gregg,  Commerce  of  the  Prairies,  n,  147,  1844.  Ciboleros  were  buffalo  hunters, 
and  comancheroa  were  New  Mexican  Indian  traders. 


21 

for  the  reason  that  by  his  time  the  entire  group  had  become 
generally  known  to  the  whites  as  Wichita,  while  at  the 
same  time  Indians  of  other  branches  of  the  Caddoan  stock, 
to  which  the  Wichita  belong,  designated,  as  they  still  desig 
nate,  the  entire  Wichita  group  as  the  Tawehash.38 

The  name  Jumano,  as  applied  to  the  tribe,  had  disappeared 
by  this  time,  so  far  as  the  written  record  goes;  but  a  trace 
of  the  name,  dating  from  the  middle  of  the  century,  lingered 
in  the  memory  of  an  informant  of  Bandelier  about  1890.39 
Of  these  people  he  says:  " I  have  found. .  .a  trace  dating  as 
late  as  1855.  They  were  then  living  in  Texas,  not  far  from  the 
Comanches,  and  the  characteristic  disfiguration  of  the  face 
through  incisions  which  they  afterward  painted,  was  noticed 
by  my  informant  who  visited  them  about  thirty-three  years 
ago."  The  facial  decoration  was  plainly  tattoo,  and  their 
proximity  to  the  Comanche  accords  with  information 
previously  given. 

We  may  now  summarize  the  testimony  as  follows : 
In  1535  and  again  in  1582  the  Spaniards  found  a  semi- 
agricultural  tribe  living  in  more  or  less  permanent  houses, 
some  of  them  built  of  grass,  on  the  Rio  Grande  at  the  junction 
of  the  Conchos  in  Chihuahua  and  along  the  former  stream 
northward  for  a  number  of  leagues.  They  subsisted  partly 
by  hunting  the  buffalo,  and  raised  beans,  calabashes,  and 
corn.  At  the  date  last  mentioned  they  were  called  Jumano, 
and  the  Spaniards  named  them  also  Patarabueyes.  A 
distinguishing  feature  of  the  tribe  was  its  tattooing,  for 
which  reason,  when  found  east  of  the  Rio  Grande  in  New 
Mexico  in  1598,  they  were  called  "Rayados"  by  the  Span 
iards.  They  were  erratic  in  their  movements.  The  Fran 
ciscans  established  a  mission  among  them  in  New  Mexico 
in  1629,  but  it  does  not  seem  to  have  been  successful,  for 
the  Indians  appear  to  have  been  here  to-day  but  elsewhere 
tomorrow.  In  the  seventeenth  century  they  were  found 


38  One  of  the  latest  references,  from  personal  knowledge,  to  the  Tawehash  and  the 
Wichita  as  distinct  divisions,  is  that  given  by  Isaac  McCoy  in  The  Annual  Register 
of  Indian  Affairs,  Washington,  1838,  p.  27. 

39  Bandelier,  Final  Report,  pt.  I,  246,  1890. 


22 

on  the  plains  of  Texas,  and  again  living  on  the  prairies  to 
the  northward,  evidently  in  Kansas,  the  name  seemingly 
being  applied  to  each  of  two  divisions  of  the  same  tribe  or 
confederacy.  Their  custom  of  tattooing,  the  character  of 
their  houses,  and  their  semi-agricultural  mode  of  life  during 
the  century  they  were  first  known,  suggest  relationship, 
if  not  identification,  with  the  Wichita  people.  References 
in  unpublished  Spanish  documents  of  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries  indicate  that  the  Jumano  of  the  Span 
iards  of  New  Mexico  were  the  Tawehash  of  Texas;  and  it 
is  known  that  Tawehash,  the  name  of  a  division  of  the 
Wichita,  was  also  the  term  by  which  other  Caddoan  tribes 
knew  the  Wichita  tribe  proper.  There  is  direct  information 
from  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  that  the 
Wichita  mountains,  which  received  their  name  because  the 
Wichita  tribe  dwelt  thereabouts,  were  also  called  "  Jumanes 
mountains "  and  " Tawehash  mountains/'  thus  further 
substantiating  the  testimony  that  the  Jumano  and  the 
Tawehash  were  one  people.  The  Tawehash  have  been 
absorbed  by  the  Wichita  proper,  and  their  divisional  name 
is  now  practically  lost.  Likewise  the  term  Jumano,  which, 
originating  in  Chihuahua  and  New  Mexico,  passed  into 
Texas,  but  seems  to  have  been  gradually  replaced  by  the 
name  "Tawehash,"  which  in  turn  was  superseded  by 
"  Wichita." 

Thus  is  accounted  for  the  disappearance  of  a  tribe  that 
has  long  been  an  enigma  to  ethnologists  and  historians. 

BUREAU  OF  AMERICAN  ETHNOLOGY, 

Smithsonian  Institution, 

Washington,  D.  C. 


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